Ferris State Places Four Among CCHA Award Finalists

The three finalists for the 2009-10 Central Collegiate Hockey
Association (CCHA) six major individual awards were
announced this Thursday (March 11) and the
nationally-ranked Ferris State University men's ice hockey team has
four representatives vying for one of the league's
top honors.

Bob
Daniels has been named a Coach of the Year finalist
while seniors Cody Chupp
(Big Rapids) and Matt Case
(Plymouth, Minn.) are up for the Best Defensive Forward and Best
Defensive Defenseman Award, respectively. One of the finalist
for the Best Offensive Defenseman Award is junior Zach
Redmond (Traverse City).

The 2010 CCHA Awards event will be held next Thursday, March 18,
and represents the start of CCHA Championship Weekend.
The awards banquet, an Academy Awards-style event with music
videos and video highlights, will take place at the historic Fox
Theatre in downtown Detroit, Mich., across from Comerica
Park. The banquet begins with a social hour presented by the
RBC Financial Group at 6:30 p.m. (EDT) followed by the awards
program at 7:30 p.m. (EDT). Banquet tickets are $15 per
person and can be purchased by calling the CCHA office at (248)
888-0600 or at the door the day of the event.

Bob Daniels, who is midst his 18th year at
Ferris State, has presently directed Ferris State to a 19-11-6
overall record this season, which included a third-place
13-9-6-4 CCHA regular-season mark as the Bulldogs
finished one point behind Michigan State for second place in
the final league standings. Daniels, the program's all-time
winningest coach, was selected as the recipient of the Spencer
Penrose Award in 2003 as the American Hockey Coaches Association's
(AHCA) Division I National Hockey Coach of the Year. He also was
the unanimous choice as the CCHA's 2002-03 Coach of the Year and
was tabbed as Inside College Hockey.com's Coach of the
Year Award recipient. Daniels was presented with the March of Dimes
West Michigan Sports Award following the historic 2003-03 season
for his coaching efforts. In the 2007-08 campaign, Daniels
was tabbed as a finalist for the CCHA's Coach of the Year honor.

A two-time (2008-09 and 2009-10) team captain, Cody
Chupp has recorded a team second-best tying 27 points
on eight goals with 19 assists in 31 outings this
season. Chupp, a 2009-10 Lowe's Senior CLASS Award
finalist, has also registered seven multiple-point games this
campaign which represents the team's second-highest output to
date. He presently ranks 65th among the national assists
leaders with a 0.61 per game average. This week (March 10),
he was named as a participant for the fifth annual 2010
NCAA Frozen Four Skills Challenge to be held on April 9 at
Detroit's Ford Field.

Matt Case has turned in his most productive
season as a Bulldog this campaign with career numbers in
points (16), assists (12), and plus/minus efficiency (+4) in
36 games. Case also has tallied a career single-season best
tying four goals this season, which includes a career-high tying
two power-play lamplighters and has racked up 40 blocked
shots. He presently is tied for second place among
Ferris State's top scoring defensemen while ranking tied for
seventh overall. Case has also played an integral role
in helping the Bulldogs rank seventh place
nationally in scoring defense with a 2.28 goals per game
average allowed.

A 2009-10 All-CCHA Second-Team selection, Zach
Redmond's 25 points this season in 36 appearances
represents a personal career high. The three-time CCHA
Defenseman of the Week pick has netted a career season-best tying
six goals, which features three game-winning tallies, to go
with 19 assists and a team third-most five multi-game efforts
for this season. The FSU blueliner is fourth in league
overall scoring for defensemen as a result of his 0.69 points an
outing average while ranking third in CCHA contests only for
defenders by averaging 0.68 points per contest.

Ferris State four finalists for the 2009-10 CCHA's top
individual awards are:

COACH OF THE YEAR FINALISTSBob Daniels, Ferris State
Enrico Blasi, Miami
Rick Comley, Michigan State